Does Jamaica have its own language?

Question

or is it just english with a differant accent to ours?

Answer 1

Although Jamaica’s official language is English, many of its residents speak with their own linguistic style. There are even differences from village to village. The main ingredients of Jamaica's language stew are Spanish, African, English—including Irish, British and American idioms—and even Rastafarian. On Jamaica you might hear your shoes referred to with the Spanish word, “zapatos,” and you might talk about where to “nyam,” an African word meaning “eat.” However, you may also hear terms you’re more familiar with, like “cool” and “Irie.” The language also has roots in slavery, as the slaves found ways to combine the language of their owners with their own African tongues.


http://jamaica-guide.info/past.and.present/culture/

Answer 2

English

Answer 3

Jamaican English evolved from American Colonial English just like U.S. and Canadian English did. Most of the slave ships that visited Jamaica in the 17th and 18th centuries came out of Boston and Philadelphia. However, there is a fairly strong West African influence on the language too as well as some Briticisms just as in Canadian English because, unlike the United States, these two countries remained in the British Empire and Commonwealth.

Answer 4

It is a distinct variation on English. It's not just the accent, it's the vocabulary and the syntax. However, the English roots are quite clearly discernible. Jamaican pronunciation and vocabulary are significantly different from English, despite heavy usage of English words or derivatives. It is to the point where a native speaker of a non-Caribbean English dialect can only understand a heavily accented Jamaican speaker if he/she speaks slowly and foregoes the use of the numerous idioms that are common in Jamaican. Jamaican Creole displays similarities to the pidgin and creole languages of West Africa due to their common descent from the blending of African substrate languages with European tongues. Behind the barrier of very different accents, there is actually mutual intelligibility between many of them, such as Sierra Leone's Krio and Nigerian Pidgin English, and Jamaican Creole.

Answer 5

KARIFUNA LANGUAGE.- Garifuna is an Arawakan language that originated on the island of St. Vincent, but is now spoken in Belize, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala. The Garinagu (also known as Black Carib) number roughly 250, 000 with the majority living in Honduras.

I have seen many places where Garifuna is called a creole but this is not the case. While the Garifuna language does contain borrowings from English, French and Spanish, and of course Galibi, it is solidly an Arawakan language. In addition, only one word of African origin is in the Garifuna language, mutu meaning "person".

The Garifuna language is very very closely related to the Karifuna though there are differences, mainly in terms of pronunciation and stress but also sentence structure. In spite of these differences a person speaking and Karifuna and a person speaking Garifuna could understand each other without difficulty.

Pronunciation notes: In Garifuna most letters are sounded as in Spanish, except for "h" which is like it's English counterpart and "ü" which is a sound that is found in many indigenous South American languages but not in English. To produce this sound say the "oo" sound as in the word "pool" and then unround your lips while saying it.

Answer 6

1. Mandarin 2. English 3. Arabic 4. Hindu 5. Spanish 6. Portuguese 7. Bengali 8. Russian 9. Japanese 10. Punjabi

Answer 7

English, with a different accent!

Answer 8

the formal language is standard english. however, most jamaicans speak patois(mostly broken english) aamong themselves.

the enunciation id different especially compared to american form.

Answer 9

i don't no but they probably do.